Citywide Baptist Church
Jesus cares for the outsiders
Ann unpacks the significance behind Jesus' healing of three people
Locations & Times
Citywide Baptist Church (Mornington)
400 Cambridge Rd, Mornington TAS 7018, Australia
Sunday 10:00 AM
“In affliction I am presented with a choice: surrender to the hopelessness brought upon us or to reach for hope? … there is no more chilling prayer than the prayer of the forsaken … the chill of indifference … the metallic chill that freezes all those it touches down to the depths of their soul. It deprives the victims of their personality and turns them into things.
The afflicted cry out: Where is God? How can a God who wills all, allow such horror? I don't doubt God's existence. But I must ask: Is God just?”
Stan Grant
The afflicted cry out: Where is God? How can a God who wills all, allow such horror? I don't doubt God's existence. But I must ask: Is God just?”
Stan Grant
Why do good people suffer while those who do bad things get it easy?
Where is God? Who is God?
As Jesus comes away from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus demonstrates his authority as Immanuel, God with us.
The leper was physically, socially, mentally, and spiritually isolated but he humbly puts into practise what Jesus has just taught his discuples to do.
Jesus could have cleansed this man with just a word. He didn’t have to touch him. But this man needed to be touched.
Jesus wants his followers, including you and me, to reach past stigma and self-preservation to connect with people in their need. He showed us how to do that.
The enemy soldiers were also ‘unclean’ in the eyes of the Jews. They didn’t worship the one, true God. They weren’t the chosen children of Abraham with whom God had entered into covenant relationship.
Jesus didn’t see an enemy. He saw the person inside the uniform and heard his desperation. He knew this man’s heart.
He was willing to go with him and enter his unclean home in the unclean, non-Jewish part of town!
Because Jesus is Immanuel. God with us. God with the afflicted.
He was willing to go with him and enter his unclean home in the unclean, non-Jewish part of town!
Because Jesus is Immanuel. God with us. God with the afflicted.
This centurion had the kind of faith that made him a child of God and an heir of righteousness.
Jesus was teaching an important lesson: faith is the key to entry into the banquet. God’s promised blessing to Abraham and his children wasn’t just for them.
Jesus was teaching an important lesson: faith is the key to entry into the banquet. God’s promised blessing to Abraham and his children wasn’t just for them.
Jesus didn’t judge. He responded with love and treated this man in the same way he himself wanted to be treated – with acceptance and compassion.
Because God is love. God with the afflicted, no matter who they are. No matter who we are.
Because God is love. God with the afflicted, no matter who they are. No matter who we are.
“God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”
Bono
Bono
In Jesus’ time, women weren’t considered as important as men but Jesus doesn’t favour men over women and vice versa. He loves and cares for each of us equally.
Although the disciples had answered the call to follow Jesus, they still had family lives and their measure of domestic sickness. Jesus’ encounter with
Peter’s mother-in-law must have greatly encouraged them to pray for healing among their nearest and dearest.
It can also encourage us to lay hands on people and pray for healing.
Peter’s mother-in-law must have greatly encouraged them to pray for healing among their nearest and dearest.
It can also encourage us to lay hands on people and pray for healing.
“We can never be dogmatic about when God will heal and when he will not. But what happened regularly and without a failure rate in the life of Jesus does happen occasionally and with many failures when his disciples pray in faith and call on God to heal. It is a sign of the kingdom. We should be surprised if we never see it …
We are in a ‘betwixt and between’ state in this mortal life: we shall see the pain and the failure, but we shall also see the power and the glory, at sometimes, if we maintain that attitude of simple trust in the heavenly Father who Jesus so movingly displayed.”
Michael Green
We are in a ‘betwixt and between’ state in this mortal life: we shall see the pain and the failure, but we shall also see the power and the glory, at sometimes, if we maintain that attitude of simple trust in the heavenly Father who Jesus so movingly displayed.”
Michael Green
“The afflicted cry out: Where is God? … Is God just? … This question has taken me to the darkest depths of my soul. And there in my abandonment I know I am not alone. At Easter I look to the meaning of the cross. Jesus died a death of affliction: my God, why have you forsaken me?
I was raised by people with hope in God. A hard hope. The despairing hope of a people forsaken. A people who wait for God's justice. And God answers: I am there with the afflicted. The God I know is with God's people, those in the image of God.Because God is love.
And the hard truth is that God is there, too, for those who bring affliction on us. God judges the sufferers and the afflicters. We are implicated in a fallen world. And each is offered God's love.”
Stan Grant
I was raised by people with hope in God. A hard hope. The despairing hope of a people forsaken. A people who wait for God's justice. And God answers: I am there with the afflicted. The God I know is with God's people, those in the image of God.Because God is love.
And the hard truth is that God is there, too, for those who bring affliction on us. God judges the sufferers and the afflicters. We are implicated in a fallen world. And each is offered God's love.”
Stan Grant
Small Group Questions:
The leader can use these questions in addition to those with the booklet for this sermon series.
1)Have someone read out the full text of Stan Grant's article from the ABC website. What responses do you have?
2)Jesus continually reaches out to the outsiders. Who are the outsiders today that we might find it hard to reach out to?
3)What has been your experience of praying for healing for people?
4) Take some time to ask if anyone in the group would like prayer for healing and have the group stop and pray for those people.
The leader can use these questions in addition to those with the booklet for this sermon series.
1)Have someone read out the full text of Stan Grant's article from the ABC website. What responses do you have?
2)Jesus continually reaches out to the outsiders. Who are the outsiders today that we might find it hard to reach out to?
3)What has been your experience of praying for healing for people?
4) Take some time to ask if anyone in the group would like prayer for healing and have the group stop and pray for those people.